


Hey, June

by DaveandKen_Archivist



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-14
Updated: 2010-05-14
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:18:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8124973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaveandKen_Archivist/pseuds/DaveandKen_Archivist
Summary: Starsky has something he doesn't want to tell anyone, but Hutch is determined to find out what's bothering him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> by Dararose.
> 
> Note from the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Dave & Ken's Diner](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Dave_%26_Ken%27s_Diner), which experienced a drop in traffic to low levels following the opening of the official Starsky & Hutch archive. Still wanting to preserve the archive, Open Doors began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. An announcement was posted to OTW media channels, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact the archivist using the e-mail address on [ Dave and Ken's Diner collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/daveandkensdiner/profile).

 

Story Notes:

Originally this was a series of five, but the last two have been lost.  If read in order, however, you will have no problem.  I may be adding to this.  The order is:

Hey, June

Epiphany

Santa, I can explain 

Hey, June by dararose

 

  


A cool breeze filtered through the gap he'd left in the car window,  
rudely jolting Starsky out of a troubled, restless sleep.  He  
stretched, wincing as various body parts protested the abuse of  
being denied their customary soft bed.

Surveying his surroundings, he recalled stopping at the little park  
overlooking the Pacific early this morning.  It surprised him that  
he'd been allowed to sleep there unbothered since then.  According  
to his watch, it was five o'clock.

He smiled wryly. "At least I cheated Hutch outta his chance to make  
me sleep in the doghouse.  Guess I'd better go let him read me the  
riot act, though, if I want to keep my happy home." he muttered to  
himself. After the drive home from work yesterday, Hutch had  
wordlessly left the car, making it clear that he was too angry for  
talk and wouldn't particularly enjoy Starsky's company for awhile.  
Somewhat relieved, the detective had kept on going and ended up at  
Huggy's, where he'd dumped his problems on the owner's thin  
shoulders, receiving absolutely no sympathy for his trouble.

Since he'd given up his apartment long ago, there was no safe haven.

   
On the way home, he'd gotten sleepy and pulled into the little park  
and promptly fallen asleep.  Now he had a sinking feeling that Hutch  
would be more aggravated with him than ever.

It wasn't far to Venice Place and Starsky still had no excuse for  
his actions by the time he pulled to a stop at the curb. The light  
shone softly from the apartment window and the detective smirked,  
thinking that, at least, Hutch must not have slept too well, either.  
He sat in the car for awhile longer, looking at the place he had  
called home for over a year. Following the disaster with Kira, the two  
shell-shocked victims had gravitated toward each other, much like  
the Titanic heading for the iceberg. There was no missing what was  
right in front of their faces. By the time the collision came,  
it was no surprise to either of them that they had been meant to be  
lovers all along. They were deliriously happy and couldn't get  
enough of each other.

Then, unexpectedly, one bright May morning, Starsky was hurled to  
the pavement riddled with bullets. It only took a matter of seconds  
for their world to spin completely out of orbit and as Hutch hung  
over his partner, crooning that everything would be all right, he  
couldn't help thinking that there was no way in hell that could ever  
happen. Starsky couldn't remember much of what had happened in the hospital, but he knew that his heart had stopped once and that there  
seemed to be no good explanation for his being spared.  When he left  
his sterile medical womb months later, Hutch had taken him home and  
given him his life back again. They'd made the decision to let  
Starsky's apartment go, because it seemed an extravagance he just  
couldn't afford. Later on, some space next to Hutch's apartment had  
become available and they'd both worked to make the kitchen and  
bathroom larger and add on a spacious bedroom. It was home nowand they'd both been happy, until Starsky had come back on the force.

He reached the door and entered quietly, in case Hutch was still  
asleep. He picked up the sound of someone moving around and called  
out.

"Hutch?"

Starsky heard a crash, trailed closely by an expletive, and he  
followed the sound into the greenhouse, where he discovered Hutch  
gazing dismally at a pile of terracotta, mingled with the deep green  
of a crushed plant. It didn't take Starsky long to  
recognize an old enemy.

"Not much of a loss, if you ask me."

"I didn't," Hutch answered, "but what the hell is that supposed to  
mean?"

"Always pissed me off that somebody named the damn thing after a  
group of people and then felt they had to tack an adjective onto it.  
Wandering Jew!  Does Swedish Ivy have a qualifier in front of it?"

"Wandering doesn't seem like much of an insult to me."

"When I hear the word wandering, it makes me think of transients,  
gypsies. homeless people. That's not too flattering. How would you  
like to have a plant named the demented Dane or the nerdy Norwegian  
or…"

It occurred to Hutch that his partner was rambling more than usual.

"Starsky, quit trying to dance me around!" he growled. "You've got a  
tongue-lashing coming and you know it."

Starsky closed his eyes as if he were in ecstasy.

"And what luscious lashing that tongue can accomplish."

His eyes snapped open as what could only be a boa constrictor  
grabbed him by the neck and started to crush his windpipe. Starsky  
found some measure of relief when he realized Hutch had gripped his  
jacket in both big fists and was jerking him upwards so that he had  
to stand on the toes of his sneakers.

"Listen, hotshot, you'd damned well better get serious about this!   
I have to put up with your opinion on everything else in the  
universe, but when it comes to our relationship and what's happening  
to it, you clam up." An evil look crossed Hutch's face. "If I were to  
treat you acording to the way you've been acting, I'd turn you over  
my knee and blister your ass!"

Starsky remained silent, but his eyes widened and his jaw clenched.   
Something fiery and dangerous that Hutch hadn't seen since the  
shooting slithered up from the depths of his dark blue eyes.

Hutch was happy to see it, but something even more dangerous had  
possession of him right then and that took center stage. He would  
savor the moment, though, and bring it out later to study like a  
treasured photograph.

"Starsky?"

His partner stood quietly, daring Hutch with his eyes.

"Damnit, Starsky, I'm about two seconds away from forgetting that you're  
an adult.  Believe me, at this point, it would give me a helluva lot  
of satisfaction.  Is that what you want?"

Not a word from his partner, but the slightest shake of his head and  
the listlessness that returned to his eyes told Hutch that the fight  
had gone back out of him.

Shoving Starsky down on the couch, he sat across from him on the  
coffee table, his long legs planted on either side of his partner's   
to deter any escape possible.

"Okay, spit it out! What did you think you were doing?"

Obviously trapped and facing an ordeal he'd long been avoiding,  
Starsky made one more desperate attempt.

"Don't you think you're making a mountain out of a molehill, Hutch?   
I know there've been a few screw-ups since I got back to work, but  
I've just lost my edge. Things'll fall back into place."

"Screw-ups?" Hutch exploded. "If those were screw-ups, then  
yesterday was a major cluster-fuck gone south!  When I left you in  
the morning, you were buried in paperwork. How'd I end  
the day as your back-up, hauling your ass out of the fire?"

Starsky blinked in mild shock.  Hutch was normally soft-spoken, used  
profanity sparingly and was rarely crude.  He was obviously more upset  
than his partner had ever seen him before. '

`Damn,' he thought,  'I should have been up front with him from the  
start. Now I don't even know where to begin.'

"Starsky?"

"You're the one who said we should question Mack Carter."

"I did and I assumed we would be together when we did that. You  
grasp the concept, don't you?  To-ge-ther? You and I?  Me and Thee?  
Partners?"

"Yeah, yeah..I understand. I thought…"

"Uh-Uhn."

"Huh?"

"You don't think…you do.  Mack Carter is syndicate.  You know  
that.  Wasting a cop or two is his favorite indoor sport and he  
enjoys finding new and novel ways of doing it.  He's surrounded by  
the lowest level of scumbags around.  You know all of that.  But you  
decided to waltz in there by yourself and grill him about a murder?  
You're a much better cop than that."

"Hutch, we've been so busy and you were gonna be tied up in court  
all day. I thought I was doing you a favor."

"You're missing the point, Starsky.  All of these little "screwups"  
have been because you've gone off on a tangent and tried to do  
something on your own.  Alone.  Believe me, I've gone down the whole list of excuses I can come up with.  Glory-hounding? Not your  
style.  New partner? I think you'd be man enough to tell me. Wanna  
make Lieutenant? You have to go back to school.   The leash a little  
too short? Maybe? Huh?"

Starsky brought his head up, surprised. "God, no, Hutch. I haven't  
changed my mind about us. I love you more than I ever thought I  
could."

Hutch's tension eased and he slumped over, his head in his hands.

Starsky immediately reached out to put his arms around him.

"I'm sorry...sorry I put you through this. That isn't it at all.  
When you burst into Carter's office with your gun drawn and sparks  
shootin' outta your eyes, I never loved you more. I knew then I had  
to come clean. I just didn't know how. It's too hard for me."

Hutch drew back just enough so he could look into Starsky's eyes,  
unwilling to break the bond of the arms that clung to him.

"I'm not hearing any answers."

"Well...it has to do with...it's because...Oh, shit...you know...I'm a man."

The furrow in Hutch's brow deepened and he pulled back from the other man's arms.

"That's quite apparent to me...especially since we became lovers."

Starsky manged to look everywhere else in the room, avoiding Hutch's eyes.

"It just isn't something that's easy for a guy to admit, Hutch.  It  
would be easier if I was a...dammit...a June."

  
"June?  I've waited to hear this for months and that's all you can  
come up with?  What's a June...a month...a bug...what the hell?"

"Okay, didn't you ever notice that the most capable, feminine women  
on TV were named June? They always knew the right thing to say and do.   
June Cleaver, June Allyson, June Lockhart…..she was Lassie's mom, you know?  Well, not Lassie's, but…"

"Godamnit, Starsky, would you just get on with it? What does that  
have to do with us?"

  
"See….if I were a June, that would mean I was a woman and a near  
perfect one at that.

"And...?" 

And...therefore I wouldn't need to worry about being all macho and  
I could just tell you that the job is too much for me and I'd still  
have my pride. But I can't tell you that."

"Don't look now, Starsk, but I think you just did.  Your logic  
stinks, but, God help me….I understand it."

"I'm sorry, Hutch. I didn't want to let you down."

"When did you come across this little revelation."

"When I woke up in the hospital."

Hutch just stared at him.

"Hutch?"

"Is there some sane reason why you didn't say anything then?"

"I think you know the reason."

"If it has anything to do with July, I'm gonna punch you."

"July?  Are you nuts?"

"Apparently.  This is beginning to sound a lot like one of the  
stanzas of Jabberwocky"

"Because you love police work and it would break your heart to  
have to quit. And I knew you'd quit if I did.  I couldn't do that to  
you."

"So all the agony we both went through to get you ready to take the  
tests was for me?"

"Not all. I did want to be able to do as much for myself as  
possible. I kept waiting for them to put the brakes on me, but they  
never did."

Hutch put his hand under the other man's chin and lifted his head,  
so that Starsky had to look directly into his pale blue eyes.

"That's because you didn't tell them how you really felt," he said,  
very slowly and deliberately, as if speaking to a child.  "I knew  
you were crazy, I just didn't know you were certifiable."

"What do we do now, Hutch?" Starsky asked him, feeling more  
miserable than he ever had before.

"That's the easy part, we quit."

"I'm not going to let you do that. I'll go away."

Hutch began to laugh.

"You think me going away is funny?" Starsky asked incredulously.

"No. not that," Hutch blurted out between guffaws. "It just occurs  
to me that for two people who lived in each other's heads, our brain  
waves sure got short circuited."

"Hutch?"

Hutch swung around so he was sitting next to his partner.  He  
noticed that by the time he got there, Starsky's arm was firmly  
planted across the back of the couch, ready to press against him and  
support him. That said it all when it came to their relationship.

"Starsky, when you got shot, I couldn't wait to get out of the  
police force.  My only reason for staying one day longer was to get  
Gunther first.  Any job that could cause that kind of injury to  
someone I loved so much was a curse as far as I could see.  And,  
let's face it.  We were pretty disillusioned already about the whole  
McClellan mess that led into it.  But I thought I knew you and  
your 'my dad was a cop and there's nothing else on earth I could ever  
be' attitude.  I was just hoping they'd tell you that there  
was no way. I knew you'd be devastated, but I also knew I could love  
you through it.  I didn't spend a lot of time thinking it out,  
because what kind of 'iron man' ever makes it all the way back after  
taking that many bullets. I was too busy worrying which of my  
equally crummy pairs of jeans I should wear to your funeral."

That remark inadvertantly broke the tension and they both chuckled.  
Starsky still had reservations, But Hutch had never lied to him and  
he felt now that it was something they could work through together.

"Hard to believe we've both been so dense.  This is going to take  
awhile for me to get my mind around.  It's my fault.  I should have  
been straight with you."

"Oh, you will be, but not tonight.  I'm beat."

"Yeah, me too."

"So, why don't I go clean up the 'Jew' plant and you go do your June  
Cleaver impersonation and fix us a sandwich or something?"

"Hu-u-u-utch! I don't wanna be hearing that all the time."

"You won't. Maybe just once a day or so."

"Until you forget it?"

"For the rest of your life is more like it.  Live with it."

Starsky trudged into the kitchen, muttering dire threats against his  
partner's person. He was totally bewildered by the events of the  
afternoon. Already, though, he felt such relief that he no longer  
had to keep up the pretense or try to convince everyone that he was  
super-cop, only to end up falling  on his ass.

He heard Hutch quietly come into the living room and pick up his  
guitar.  Starsky loved to listen to him play, but he wasn't prepared  
for the lead-in to 'Hey Jude.'  Hutch sometimes played it when he  
was down and thinking back to when he'd been strung out on dope.  
This time, though, Hutch put a slightly different slant on it.

"Hey, June,

Don't let me down,

You have found her, now go and get her.

Remember to let her into your heart,

Then you can start...."

He didn't get any further before the guitar went flying and Starsky  
had him pinned and was demanding an apology.

Later on, Hutch snuggled up against his lover's back in bed, as they  
mused drowsily about the future.

"Keep practicing your home-making skills, maybe I'll make an honest  
man out of you someday." Hutch muttered.

"Just remember, when it comes to the wedding. white pales out my  
complexion, shell-fish give me gas and I hate daisies."

"We can have a June wedding, though," Hutch wheezed, through fits of  
giggles.

They settled down eventually and Hutch was about to fall asleep.

"Hutch?"

"Hmmmm?"

"I was thinking. sometimes in the Jewish marriage ceremony, they  
quote a Bible passage from Ruth. 'For where you go, I will go and  
where you lodge, I will lodge.`  That's what I want for us.   
Whatever you want to do is all right by me.  I just want to be with  
you till it's all over and one of us is gone."

Hutch nuzzled his lovers ear, feeling the shivers course through the  
other man's body as they always did when he paid attention to that  
particular spot. He smiled wickedly.

"Aw, Starsk, I love that you feel that way. You and I both have some  
money saved up and it's always been a dream of mine to buy some land  
in the mountains. wooded land, you know. We could build our own  
cabin, maybe even hunt and fish for our food.  We wouldn't even have  
to work."

There was total silence. Knowing exactly what was going through his  
partner's mind, Hutch debated telling him that whatever they found  
to occupy the rest of their days,  it would be something that they  
both loved. And it definitely would be together,  if he had to chain  
Starsky to the bed to keep him out of trouble 

'Nah, let him twist in the wind a little. Tomorrow's our day off and  
I'll make it up to him.' he thought to himself, sleepily.

As Hutch drifted into peaceful sleep, he thought he heard Starsky  
whisper, "Swear t' god, I'm gonna Superglue my mouth shut."

For the first time in several months, Hutch slept contentedly,  
secure in his love and their future. Starsky, on the other hand, was  
plagued with interminable nightmares where he was being chased by  
rabid beasts, venomous snakes and voracious insects.

  
The End

 


End file.
